DATE: Tuesday, July 8, 1997                 TAG: 9707080273

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   35 lines

PLANNED PARENTHOOD WEIGHS IN ON ABORTION LAW

A judge who blocked enforcement of Virginia's parental notification law correctly based his decision on other federal court rulings, Planned Parenthood said in court papers Monday.

U.S. District Judge James Turk's decision on June 30 was overturned the same day by Judge Michael Luttig of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the parental notification law took effect the next day.

Planned Parenthood, which sued to overturn the law, now wants a three-judge panel to reverse Luttig and take the law off the books until the lawsuit is decided. The law requires a doctor to notify a parent before performing an abortion on an unmarried girl under 18.

Among the abortion-rights organization's claims is that the law improperly allows a juvenile court judge to require notification even if he finds a girl is mature enough to make the abortion decision herself.

Turk agreed. But Luttig said in a written opinion Thursday that the U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled that parental notification laws must have a provision, commonly known as ``judicial bypass,'' allowing a girl to petition a court to waive the notification requirement.

He said a Supreme Court opinion cited by Turk involved a parental consent law - one that required a parent to give permission for an abortion. He said there was no assurance the Supreme Court would rule the same on a notification law.

Planned Parenthood acknowledged that the Supreme Court has never said a parental notice law must have a bypass provision. But it said other federal courts have held that notification laws that do have a bypass must meet the same criteria as consent laws. KEYWORDS: PLANNED PARENTHOOD ABORTION LAW

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